Writing Platforms- Which Are Best?

Written By Becky Holderness

I don’t know about you, but for me a major part of being a writer is sharing your work with the rest of the world. There’s nothing worse than writing something which you’re incredibly proud of and having nobody to share it with, which is exactly what inspired me to first post a story on a writing platform, working my way through Fictionpress, Wattpad, Figment and, finally, Penana.

So, if you fancy testing one out for the first time or simply want to trial a new one, I’m going to be working through the pros and cons of these four sites and, ultimately, deciding which is my favourite.

I’m going to begin with Fictionpress, since it was the first one I used. Don’t by any means imagine me to be an expert on this particular site, as I last used it quite a few years back (as far as I know, it might not even exist anymore), aged around 12 to post my cheesy horror and romance stories. At the time it seemed great, as it was my first experience of such a platform but, in hindsight, it was very basic and filled with a great deal of poorly written works. All in all, it’s probably not the best place to get noticed, since barely anyone read my stories, never mind commented on them. 

When I first discovered Wattpad, it seemed amazing compared to Fictionpress. Everything about it was so much more professional and advanced (ignoring the hundreds of trashy fan-fictions) and, from first impressions, it seemed like you could get noticed much more easily through this site. However, although professional writers use Wattpad and some individuals can rack up thousands of views, it’s really a game of luck and writing a story that appeals to a great amount of people. In other words, your story may be the greatest out there, but unless it gets enough comments, views and votes to boost its popularity, you “ain’t getting nowhere” with Wattpad (also, people rarely give feedback that isn’t “this is good”, which really gets on my nerves). Success on such a site is by no means guaranteed and, unfortunately, may never happen. 

Next on the list is Figment. Having given up on Wattpad, I tried out some new sites, Figment being one of them. It seemed relatively new and unestablished, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the problem was with the type of people who used it – they never commented on anyone’s work unless someone commented first. Okay, fair enough, it can be annoying when you give out paragraphs of feedback but never receive any on your own work, but this system was far from ideal. For starters, I frequently gave writers greatly detailed feedback and received only a sentence in return and, worst of all, if you simply don’t have time to read other people’s stories, you will never receive any feedback on yours. My stories could easily remain unnoticed on Figment for all of eternity. 

I’m ending with Penana mainly because it was the last place I tried, but also because it is, by far, the best. People generally laugh when I tell them I use “Penana”, but it’s no joke because the site is great. Penana is like all the best parts from the other writing platforms stitched together, only with a generally nicer type of people sprinkled on top of this. When I first posted a story on here, I received feedback within days and it was actually valuable feedback too. Not only can you post stories and poems on Penana, but you can also create a writer’s blog, which is another great way to get noticed. Above all, the site is just a lovely community. Nobody expects feedback in return, people will actually give constructive criticism and I frequently get private messages from people asking how my writing is going, not purely to demand me for feedback on their work. 

After reading all this, you’ve probably easily gathered which is my favourite – it’s not exactly a difficult competition. Perhaps I am a little biased, but I have found Penana to be the greatest writer’s platform of all. 

Why not give it a try?